The 21 Best Things to Do in Miami This Week

Baseball is considered America's pastime, but other countries have been beating us at it for a while. Japan won the World Baseball Classic in 2006 and 2009, and the Dominican Republic snatched the crown in 2013. But hey, in Miami, our allegiances don't always lie with the good old U.S. of A. Marlins Park will host a first-round series with the United States, Canada, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic this weekend, so fans will hail from all over the map. But you can always eat peanuts and Cracker Jack to feel at home. 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday, noon and 6:30 p.m. Saturday, and 12:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday at Marlins Park, 501 Marlins Way, Miami; 305-480-1300; worldbaseballclassic.com. Admission starts at $15 for individual games and $30 for game packages.

Memory is a fickle beast. You might insist that finding your family's first cat 16 years ago was your doing, but your sister says the same about herself. Whom should you believe? In Memory Lab, HistoryMiami commissioned work from 14 artists and two artist collectives to explore not only individual memory but also the collective memory of cities and states. With tens of thousands of hours of film, more than a million images, and thousands of artifacts at their disposal from HistoryMiami and the Wolfson Archives, makers crafted interactive installations, sound pieces, and multimedia works inspired by our home's rich history. 6 p.m. Thursday at HistoryMiami, 101 W. Flagler St., Miami; 305-375-1492; historymiami.org. Opening reception admission is free; regular museum admission costs $10.

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John Deering, Henry Flagler, George Merrick, DJ Khaled — South Florida history is full of dudes, but that doesn't mean there weren't women calling some shots. For Women's History Month, Girls' Club has organized Along the Shadow of the River, a performance by Christina Pettersson, at the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society to honor the women who helped shape our region. Along the New River, attendees will walk through scattered performances of opera, dance, and more — all performed by South Florida-based women artists — while being educated about the contributions of a handful of female pioneers, because fighting the patriarchy begins with knowledge. See page 27 for more about Girls' Club. 6 p.m. Thursday at the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society, 219 SW Second Ave., Fort Lauderdale; girlsclubcollection.org. Admission is free.

Fairchild's Orchid Festival returns with exotic blooms: See Friday.

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

Friday

Though we might want to accept all manner of kisses from our pooches, recent science (and common sense) tells us it's a bad idea to cover our faces in dog saliva. "But where will my dog get the constant validation and physical affection he needs?!" you ask. From other canines, of course — while you sit back and enjoy craft beers with other like-minded (and parasite-free) dog parents. Bark and Brew is hosted by the dog trainers at Applause Your Paws every second Friday of the month. So go ahead and facilitate some puppy love. 6 p.m. Friday at Lincoln's Beard Brewing Company, 7360 SW 41st St., Miami; 305-912-7390; lincolnsbeardbrewing.com. Admission is free.

Eating is the only primal activity that's condoned in public, both for propriety and sanitation. So if you're looking to get in touch with your wild side among friends, Zoo Miami has you covered with Feast With the Beasts. This annual fundraiser benefits education and conservation efforts at the zoo while indulging the Homo sapiens animal brain alongside our furry, scaly, or feathered counterparts. This year's edition boasts a new Everglades exhibit, food from more than 30 local restaurants, live painting, deep-sea virtual reality, and a demonstration by chef Ralph Pagano. 8 p.m. Friday at Zoo Miami, 12400 SW 152nd St., Miami; 305-255-5551; fwtb.org. Tickets cost $250 to $500.

Do you still love him? Ryan Adams: See Friday.

Courtesy of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts

It can be hard to like country music. Once you've heard the 50th ballad championing a man's love for his truck/dog/guitar, you begin to wonder how the genre has survived so long. But Ryan Adams changes all of that with his musicianship, variety, and practically punk-rock attitude. Aside from exploring genres far beyond country, Adams has enjoyed a long career of critical success and notoriety. This show is part of a tour to promote his latest effort, Prisoner. The album was inspired by his recent divorce from singer Mandy Moore, so forgo the cowboy boots for a light(er) to wave. 8 p.m. Friday at Parker Playhouse, 707 NE Eighth St., Fort Lauderdale; 954-462-0222; parkerplayhouse.com. Tickets cost $43 to $53.

While folks in other states struggle to keep their indoor orchids alive, we here in our tropical paradise simply stick them in a palm tree and enjoy the blooms. This makes it easy for Fairchild to host its annual Orchid Festival, where more than 10,000 orchids will be on display. Highlighted this year is the Million Orchid Project, aimed at growing native and endangered orchids. If you really want to feel superior to your northern counterparts, bring cash to purchase some exotic flowers for yourself. 9:30 a.m. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, 10901 Old Cutler Rd., Coral Gables; 305-667-1651; fairchildgarden.org. Admission costs $25.

You're a new artist onstage at an open mike. You do your thing with passion and precision, waiting for thunderous adulation. What you get is the sound of a few dwindling conversations and distracted applause. Want to see real responses? Coast 2 Coast sets out to provide up-and-comers with real-time feedback via iPads from judges who are professionals in the music industry at showcases around the country. Each event produces a winner who moves on to compete for big money at the final competition in the fall. Attend this round to scope out the local talent (or competition). 10 p.m. Friday at Miami Live, 912 71st St., Miami Beach; 786-671-5483; coast2coastlive.com. Admission costs $10.

If you've wished you were from Canada lately, you're not alone — that Justin Trudeau is a handsome devil. But unusually good-looking prime ministers aren't the only thing to come out of Canada. If you remember 1998, you recall when Canada gifted us with a Barenaked Ladies song by the name of "One Week," which had everyone's preteen siblings trying to sing along. Even if you got only the "Chinese chicken" part down pat, the band is in town to give you another chance to try to get it right while drinking and chowing down at BleauLive. 8 p.m. Friday at the Fontainebleau, 4441 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; 305-674-4641; fontainebleau.com/bleaulive. Admission costs $60 to $99.

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Relive the golden age of radio at the Wolfsonian: See Saturday.

Courtesy of Heather Cook

Saturday

Gone are the days when Americans would gather 'round radios in anticipation, but that doesn't mean radio is dead. The endurance of podcasts and NPR are proof of otherwise. To celebrate radio's legacy, the Wolfsonian is hosting Radiofest, an all-day event including lectures, workshops, onsite recordings, archival sounds, and a vintage radio collection. It'll all culminate at 7 p.m. with four South Florida-inspired radio plays ranging in topics from climate change to illegal graffiti. So whether you love the tales of old or the possibilities of the future, your ears are in for a treat. 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Wolfsonian-FIU, 1001 Washington Ave., Miami Beach; wolfsonian.org. Admission is free for daytime events; the radio plays cost $10.

At a time when the EPA is being dismantled and national parks are going rogue on social media to protect their integrity, it's important that we the people react by celebrating nature. Laundromat Art Space in Little Haiti is doing just that with "Wilderness: The Delicate and the Fierce," curated by Christin Paige Minnotte and featuring work by Minnotte, Leah Brown, Christina Pettersson, and Lisu Vega. Opening night will offer a live sculptural performance by Vega that marries dance, costumes, and footage of the Alaskan wild. 7 p.m. Saturday at Laundromat Art Space, 5900 NE Second Ave., Miami; 303-960-7810; laundromatartspce.com. Admission is free.

There are plenty of places to peep hotties in Miami, but contrary to popular belief, Ocean Drive is not usually one of them. (It's more a sunburnt-Europeans scene.) This weekend, however, modeling agencies will flood South Beach with people who are paid to be hot, put them in bathing suits, and make them do something resembling sports at Hawkers Model Beach Volleyball. Yes, it's legal, but what you might consider doing in public while you're watching them is not legal. There will be beverages, celebrities, tunes, and rock climbing for when a cool-down is inevitably necessary (or if you need an aerial view of all the sexiness). 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday at Lummus Park, Eighth Street and Ocean Drive, South Beach; modelbeachvolleyball.com. Admission is free; VIP tickets cost $300 to $2,500.

Hawkers Model Beach Volleyball

Courtesy of Lab Media Group

Beginning in 1993, Bob Marley's mother, Cedella Marley Booker, honored her late son's vision through a festival. Now called the 9 Mile Music Festival, the sonic homage takes place at Virginia Key Beach Park and features scores of talented artists. Yes, there will be reggae — Capleton will headline — but there will also be plenty of other banging sounds courtesy of greats Rick Ross, Julian Marley, and DMX. See page 37 for more about the 9 Mile Music Festival. 1 p.m. Saturday at Virginia Key Beach Park, 4020 Virginia Beach Dr., Miami; 305-665-5379; 9milemusicfestival.com. General admission costs $59.99, and VIP costs $179.99.

If there were ever a moment to celebrate our wonderful national park system and our beautiful aquifer, the Everglades, that time is now. You can learn all about this delicate ecosystem and the people who have left their footprint on it this Saturday when a trolley ride into Everglades National Park will educate by blasting you into the past at the seventh-annual Vintage Everglades Day. Converse with original settlers, check out the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, and tour the swampy landscape. Trolley at 9 a.m. and tour at 10 a.m. Saturday at National Parks Trolley Losner Park, 104 N. Krome Ave., Homestead; 305-242-7700; nps.gov. Park admission fees apply, but Vintage Everglades Day is free by riding the trolley to Royal Palm.

CrossFit Wynwood is the kind of inclusive spot that can keep even the laziest of humans returning and strengthening their bods. The employees motivate you to actually do those methods of torture — burpees — and then come back to do more. Even though going to CrossFit hung-over is the worst idea ever, each Saturday this "box" offers Bootcamp and Beer by teaming up with the local brewery J. Wakefield. For only 15 bones, you can strengthen your weak core and try a new microbrew. Get high on weights and then on beer. Why didn't someone think of this before? 10:45 a.m. Saturday at J. Wakefield Brewing, 120 NW 24th St., Miami; 305-741-0730; crossfitwynwood.com. Admission costs $15.

Whose cubano is best? Find out at Calle Ocho this Sunday.

Photo by Karli Evans

Sunday

You can take part in the croqueta-eating competition or catch the musical lineup that includes Latin crooners at Carnaval Miami's Calle Ocho, but you will not want to miss the third-annual Miami Cuban Sandwich Smackdown. Cubanos know how to make one greasy, meaty sangwish (as it's called on SW Eighth Street). The competition is bringing area restaurants to craft this local delicacy with a side of conga lines. Participants will attempt to beat the world record of largest Cuban sandwich (128 feet) and feed the homeless with it. 11 a.m. Sunday at Calle Ocho Festival, SW Eighth Street and SW 19th Avenue, Miami; 813-319-5850; ilovecubansandwiches.com. Admission is free.

Miami's Caribbean style is partly what makes this city such a seductive and flavorful place. This year, Fiji Miami is holding its Cooler Fiesta at Wynwood on the Green. Organizers promise reggae, soca, hip-hop, and even EDM by DJs Donhot, Eccentrix Sound, Sinister & Steeliback, and Willy Chin. The finest food trucks will show as well, mostly down from Caribbean enclaves in Broward County. 4 p.m. Sunday at Wynwood on the Green, 590 NW 23rd St., Wynwood; 786-251-0129; whyiparty.com. Admission costs $35.

South Florida is the perfect place to bike. The weather rarely fails, and the ground is as flat as the post-DeVos students will believe the planet is. For the past six years, Coral Gables has taken these benefits into account when planning the annual Gables Bike Day. It's a family-friendly affair with safety classes for kids, food trucks, Shake 108 tunes, exercise classes, and a Green Mobility Network bike valet. Bike tours show cyclists the hidden treasures this gorgeous city offers. 11 a.m. Sunday at Merrick Park, 405 Biltmore Way, Coral Gables; bikewalkcoralgables.com. Admission is free.

Patti LaBelle: See Tuesday.

Courtesy of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts

Monday

The current artist in residence at the culturally conscious Betsy Hotel, Eugenia Zukerman, is a flutist, writer, artistic director, television journalist, educator, and internet entrepreneur. That's a lot of hats to wear. She'll appear at the Ocean Drive hotel's Breakfast Arts Salon in celebration of women who create community through the arts. This will be the tonic to your Trump tummyache. So be sure to arrive hungry for connections as much as for breakfast. 9:30 a.m. Monday at the Betsy, 1440 Ocean Dr., Miami Beach; 305-531-6100; thebetsyhotel.com. Admission is free with RSVP.

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Tuesday

The Bluebelles have faded into the past, but their frontwoman, Patti LaBelle, continues to bloom on her own. In her 70s, the Lady Marmalade singer is still as beautiful and vibrant as ever. This week at the Broward Center, the Godmother of Soul will belt out hits for your aural pleasure, not to tout her tasty Patti Pies. 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Broward Center, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale; 954-462-0222; browardcenter.org. Tickets cost $60 to 135.

Wednesday

It's your month, ladies. This year, Women's History Month coincides with a historic time for females and those who identify as such. They are rising up in the streets to tell the misogynistic government to shove it. At Café Crème, women have been gathering for Books & Brew — not a political gathering per se, but an inherent celebration of their power. This week, it's Women's History Edition. Bring your own book written by or featuring a lady, and share it as you learn about Miramar-raised author and history lover Adia Kamaria. 5:15 p.m. Wednesday at Café Crème, 750 NE 125th St., North Miami; 786-409-3961; cafecrememiami.com. Admission costs $15 to $20.

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